You would think it would be accepting an offer but it’s not. The hardest decision the seller makes is choosing the listing price. Most seller’s pay attention to their neighborhood, especially as they get closer to listing their home. So they get a number in their head. Then they talk to friends and probably a couple of Realtors. By that point they have several numbers bouncing around their head. They have their own price which is sprinkled with memories and the work they put in Continue reading →

It’s so hard to pick a good Realtor because most people don’t buy homes often enough to get a good gauge on the process and know what to look for or what works for them. Do you pick based on sales? I know a Realtor that had 60 sales in one year and your best interest is the very last thing on his mind. I had ten sales in one month and I don’t even remember it because things were so crazy. Do you pick Continue reading →

It’s that time of year, so much to do, so little time it seems. That’s why real estate slows down so much during the holidays. Few people are motivated enough to buy or sell a home once the middle of October hits with Thanksgiving around the corner. Once January rolls around the market gets flooded with new listings. Don’t be discouraged by the lack of homes for sale if you are a buyer, they will come back. If you area seller, this is a great Continue reading →

Dennis Hope, a Nevada entrepreneur, has been selling lunar real estate, priced at $20/acre, for the last 20 years. By exploiting a loophole created during the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty (the Treaty stated that no country or government could lay claim on extraterrestrial land, but did not mention private individuals or corporations), he has basically laid ownership claim not only on earth’s nearest satellite, the moon, but also on seven other planets, and their individual moons. His business, called Lunar Embassy, is booming. Continue reading →

The city of Beaverton and the Biggi family have been arguing/negotiating over some land in Beaverton that the city would like to use to build a stadium for the Portland(will they change the name to Beaverton) Beavers. Negotiations broke down and the Mayor started talking about eminent domain. Once he agreed to back off that idea the Biggi family went back to negotiations. What is eminent domain? The Fifth Amendment grants the federal government the right to exercise its power of eminent domain, and the due Continue reading →

Last year the Vice President of a major title company was in town to talk about the state of our local housing market. He started off by asking, why is there so much litigation with siding in the Northwest. If you live anywhere in the Portland area you have likely seen whole housing developments with their siding removed in the last few years. Apparently homes built in the last 12 years or so weren’t done according the siding manufacturer’s instructions. I don’t know if it Continue reading →

90% of the time when I go to list a home the last place they want me to look at is the garage. It is often followed by apologies about how messy it is and then they just trail off. First let me say I have rarely found a buyer who cared what the garage looked liked. Almost everyone is in the same boat where their car, much less a boat, would fit in the garage. With that out of the way how about getting Continue reading →

USDA loans are for what is typically considered rural properties. Those areas are still mapped based on old population numbers. Now you can find new developments and gorgeous homes well within these boundaries. USDA loans require no downpayment and for a few more months there is no mortgage insurance required. The monthly mortgage insurance will be less than FHA or conventional home loans. If you want to learn more about USDA loans contact the Home Loan Ninja. If you want to find homes that are Continue reading →

I love (that has changed) the book Freakonomics. I like to look at information counter-intuitively to see what is maybe missing. Such as killing the cats made the plague spread quicker because it was the fleas on the rats that were the real culprit In the video above they don’t look outside the box; they just go with normal motivations. They say that people (agents) are motivated by money which is true on the macro level. I know agents who are “those” people who just Continue reading →